HELP US BRING TRANSFORMATIONAL EDUCATION TO THE FURTHEST REGIONS OF THE WORLD.
HELP US BRING TRANSFORMATIONAL EDUCATION TO THE FURTHEST REGIONS OF THE WORLD.
Not to know is bad.– Nigerian saying –
Not to want to know is worse.
Not to hope is unthinkable.
Not to care is unforgivable.
Mission to Heal medical teams travel to where medical need is great and where medical help is under-resourced or non-existent. M2H is already the story of Western and indigenous caregivers operating side-by-side on the fringes of surgical civilization. Dr. Geelhoed and his teams operate with limited supplies, often without electricity, often with only local anesthesia. Their patients are stoic and grateful; the supporting caregivers are resourceful and generous in the extreme. Often against a backdrop of civil war, refugee camps, deep geopolitical instability, poverty, and indifference, the medical teams and the indigenous communities respond with humility, perseverance, and uncommon resilience in order to bring hope to the “bottom billion” of the world.
Obviously, Africa – which is only the most dramatic example – suffers from both the greatest need and the least access. Today, in Africa, 56,000,000 people are in need of surgery. Worldwide, approximately 2 billion people still have no access to basic surgical care. And according to the World Health Organization, fully 11% of the global disease burden can be treated with surgery. More die from surgical need than AIDS and malaria and other ailments combined.
Among the many examples of acute and chronic health burdens that can be cured by surgery are traumatic joint dislocations, open fractures to prevent osteomyelitis, hernia repairs, thyroidectomies, hysterectomies, and draining of abscesses. Surgery is also an essential component of maternal and child healthcare. Congenital anomalies and maternal mortality alone add up to over 600,000 deaths per year.